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create executable for imaging

Alright I have been put in charge of around 70 computer on an internal LAN (isn't hooked to internet). My first plan of action is getting all the computer to run the same software and OS. I have upgraded all the OS's to Windows 2000 professional. Now, I have about 10 programs that I would like to upload on all of these computers but I don't want to have to upload them manually. What would you guys offer as advice?

Right now I am thinking of trying to write a quick batch file that kinda loads all of them but I think that it will take to long. Is there a way I can do it from the server?

I am updating the server to Windows 2003 Server using active directory with a domain.

What do you guys think.

**I didn't know which forum to put this in so I decided it was probably a simple enough question to go into the newbie section**

well i think you should (assuming all machines are alike) get one machine built perfectly .. i mean all the correct drivers installed for everything all the software you want running and configured. then make a ghost image of it

all you need to do then is load the image onto all the machines and introduce them onto the domain ...

this can be done using norton ghost either take a cd with the image burnt onto it to all the machines or set them up so they suck the image of a server

Either ghost the computers or deploy the programs with AD group policies (assuming these use the MSI installer)...
Otherwise you can look into SMS or other management tools.

Of course scripting the install is also an option; you can add your batch file to the boot up scripts in active directory group policies (just make sure in your batch file to check if the programs are already installed so as not to reinstall them at every startup...)

I have done that on previous networks but the problem is, they are not all the same type of computers. I wish all the computer were the same because the solution would be easy and I would be able to simply image the HD but it isn't and it is just a big headache.

So even though image the HD would be great it isn't going to work on this one. There has to be an easy way to somehow load the programs off the server!

Is there a way I can load let say WORD onto the server and whenever a user wants to open a .doc it will call to the server so that the users machine doesn't actually have anything on it beside the OS? If so, how much of a slowdown would this be?

The server is a Dell server with Dual Xeon 2.6g processors with 2 gigs of ram with two 136gig 10,000rpm cheetah drives. The nic cards (two of them) are 10/100/1000 so I that shouldn't be a slowdown.

Damn SirDice you beat me to it! A terminal server might just be what you want! but then again the price of you loading the machines might be cheaper, eather way the Terminal server might be something worth looking into.

The internet, not just for stalkers and pervs, but for computer geeks too!

i am in charge of our ghost and imaging where i work, and we have an image that successfully works on everything we use from p3-p4 (including celeron)... if you want to use ghost, you can re-seal them with sysprep (from microsoft) and make sure it generates a new SID and redetects all non PnP hardware... the other thing you have to do is make sure that your image has all the drivers for all the other computers on it...

as far as a terminal server goes, what is the point of having a computer with a hard drive if you are just going to "remote desktop" into another one and use all the resources of that one...

One image, sysprep, like djscribble says. Test it a couple of times, I'm sure you'll miss one or two drivers (depending on how many different systems you have).

I've cloned Dells to Compaqs and IBMs using that method and it has worked flawlessly.

peace

Mankind have a great aversion to intellectual labor; but even supposing knowledge to be easily attainable, more people would be content to be ignorant than would take even a little trouble to acquire it.
- Samuel Johnson